The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to preserve their tournament hopes alive

ICC Women's World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna Akter 3-27

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka emerge victorious by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka took four wickets in the final over to seal a heart-stopping win over their opponents and maintain their narrow aspirations of qualifying for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a below-par total of 203 on a batting-friendly pitch in Navi Mumbai, Bangladesh required nine additional runs from the final six deliveries.

Nevertheless, Lankan skipper Athapaththu claimed three important dismissals in four balls and Nilakshi de Silva ran out Nahida Akter to achieve a exciting win for the Lankan team.

The victory – Sri Lanka's initial of the tournament after three losses and two no-results against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – moves them level on four match points with the Indian team and New Zealand, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

The Bangladeshi team, in contrast, experienced a fifth successive loss since winning their initial game against Pakistan and have been removed from contention.

Even though Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa Akter taking a wicket with the opening bowl of the encounter to dismiss Gunaratne, they were rightfully penalized for a disappointing fielding display.

They gifted second chances to Perera, who was spilled on three occasions, and Athapaththu.

Even though the Sri Lankan skipper failed to capitalise, sent back leg before wicket for 46 one ball after being dropped by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh pay.

She registered a first international 50-run score, making 85 from 99 balls and sharing an crucial 74-run stand fifth-wicket with De Silva.

The Bangladeshi team, spearheaded by Shorna's 3-27, pulled themselves back to the contest, with De Silva's dismissal in the 34th innings segment initiating a Lankan collapse from 174 with four wickets down to 202 total.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's starting bowlers Madara and Udeshika Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23 for one in a lacklustre opening overs and they were afterwards reduced to 44 with three wickets lost.

Sharmin and Joty rebuilt their innings, adding 82 runs for the fourth wicket collaboration before Sharmin retired hurt for a resolute 64 in the 36th over.

It was in favor of the chasing team entering the remaining two overs, with merely 12 more runs necessary.

Nevertheless, Sugandika Dasanayaka sent back Ritu Moni and conceded merely three scoring runs before Athapaththu's dramatic spell, with Rabeya Khan, Nahida Akter, captain Joty and Marufa Akter all removed as the Lankan team seized the win at the very end.

Finally, it was a game of nerves. The very experienced Athapaththu, who directed away a few of fellow players as she got ready to deliver the decisive over, kept her nerve. The opposition did not.

There will be plenty of doubts about the team's batting display. They might well have been needing 270 or 280 with the Lankan team looking comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the target was significantly less.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh showed little aggression from the start, scoring at below 2.5 scoring rate during the opening overs, undergoing a early batting collapse, and ultimately forcing themselves excessive to accomplish.

But whatever problems there are with their batting, if they had taken their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run goal would have been considerably smaller.

It required them three attempts to break the 72-run partnership second-wicket, with wicketkeeper Nigar Sultana not managing to grab a challenging catch as wicketkeeper to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a caught and bowled opportunity against Rabeya.

Perera was spilled again on 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance flying straight to Jhilik at cover position, before finally being trapped lbw by Shorna Akter as she attempted to accelerate the scoring with teammates getting out around her.

Later in the batting effort, there was furthermore a failed stumping and a run-out opportunity lost, while the latter was a little regrettable, with Jhilik substituting with the keeping duties after an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a single occurrence. They've dropped 14 catches from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and display the worst fielding effectiveness (less than 50%) of the eight teams.

They are a squad who are typically heading in the right direction – they are playing in only their second 50-over World Cup after all – but substandard fielding is a prominent issue which requires improvement.